Amazon's cloud division has confirmed that drone strikes damaged three of its facilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, days after US and Israeli military action against Iran escalated tensions across the region.
The incidents took place on Sunday morning. Amazon Web Services (AWS) initially reported that "objects" had struck a data centre in the UAE, causing "sparks and fire". Around the same time, the company began investigating power and connectivity disruptions at a site in Bahrain. On Monday, AWS confirmed that drone strikes were responsible for the outages.
Also Read | Will oil prices skyrocket? Strait of Hormuz shutdown triggers energy panic
Structural damage and service disruptions
According to the company, two facilities in the UAE were directly hit. "While in Bahrain, a drone strike in close proximity to one of our facilities caused physical impacts to our infrastructure," AWS said, reported BBC.
The strikes led to structural damage and interruptions in power supply. The company stated that the drones disrupted power delivery systems "and in some cases, required fire suppression activities that resulted in additional water damage".
AWS said it is working to restore services but cautioned that recovery may take time "given the nature of the physical damage involved".
The events have underscored the vulnerability of major technology infrastructure, including data centres, during periods of armed conflict.
Customers urged to take precautions
In response to the disruption, AWS recommended that its customers who operate in the regions where the service disruption took place should "backup data and potentially migrate workloads to other AWS locations around the world".
At the same time, the company said "the broader operating environment in the Middle East remains unpredictable" amidst the hostilities.
US President Donald Trump said strikes on Iran by the US could "last four or five weeks" but may "go far longer".
Also Read | No evidence Iran's nuclear sites were hit, says IAEA, Iran differs - new twist to West Asia conflict
Meanwhile, Iran has also been launching waves of missiles and drones targeting US bases and allied territories in the region, which include the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia.
This is a significant moment for the region's infrastructure, especially with the escalation of conflict and the overlap with key digital infrastructure that is vital for the operations of businesses around the world.
